Saturday, February 19, 2011

[cell phone]

I got my first cell phone many years ago thru the mail from a Nokia direct mail marketing campaign. It was a great phone. I didn't use it very much, I had it for "emergencies", the "what if" someone needed to get ahold of me. With time, that changed. My cell phone became a major part of my life! I had a home phone, but didn't use it, only to fax. I loved to text message and I became a heavy texter. I message you before I call you. If you are busy, I don't want to bother you. If I have a question, you can respond when you have time. If I am running late, I let you know. It is perfect for me. There are times, I must admit that it would have taken less time just to call you after we messaged back and forth so long, but that isn't fequently. When I moved to my new place March 2007, I opted for no home phone. I worked full time, having only a cell phone made the most sense. I always have my phone with me. I only left it at home twice in the time I had it...and that of course was on accident. I love having a cell phone!

I upgraded to a "smart phone" the middle of January, buying one off of someone who went back to another provider and wasn't using the phone they had purchased. I got a DROID Incredible for a SWEET deal, $50!!! But it has taken LOTS of getting used to. I previously had an enV3, normal phone with the flip open qwerty keyboard with punchable keys. Switching to 100% touch has been a bit of a difficulty to me...almost a nightmare at times. Truely, you may think me crazy, but it has. It has the option for speaking my message into it and it converting it to text. It works 50% of the time...the other 50% it is 100% WRONG! I have tried speaking slower, speaking faster, holding the phone very close, holding it far away, talking softer, talking louder, giving more pauses...I have tried all and am left to think that it just doesn't like my voice. So far, I have not figured out what makes it work accurately sometimes and other times be so far off the map on what I said that it makes me just shake my head. Regardless, there are things I love about it, the #1 being I have access to my email now 24/7 and when I am gone all day at client's offices and networking and doing meetings and errands, I am always plugged in. I had been worried that this "plugged in" status would be hard to control, I haven't found that to be the case. When I want to be working and not bothered, it goes on silent. When I am too busy to read the emails, I just don't. There are still things I am figuring out and adjusting to. And I still miss my qwerty keyboard, one that I could fly on, literally! I was a fast texter, I no longer am. My fingers forever are not "touching" the right keys or this phone is forever trying to guess what I mean and I have added words to the dictionary on it when I meant to hit the X for wrong word. Ugh...the joys of learning something new, not always peachy.

The thing I don't like is when it malfunctions. Like it did yesterday. I was texting a client's employee, the screen went all blank and white. It powered down. When it powered back up, it powered back down, automatically on its own. Frustrating. Irritating. Stupid phone. Did it 5x's. I decided to stick the phone in my pocket. I was done letting it get to me. I went inside after the employee got there, tried to make a call out to the credit card processing company regarding an issue and got this message "Verizon Wireless is unable to authenticate your phone number at this time. Please try your call again later." Excuse me? Authenticate my phone number? The one I have had since I bought my cell phone back in 2000 or whatever year it was? Really??? Whatever...I moved on, I used the landline at my client's office. I was in a rush to get from there to my CPA for my 10am appointment to get my taxes filed. I tried to call enroute to let him know I was going to be 15minutes late. Same message. Now I was irked. I knew I would have to go stand in the Customer Service line and knew this was going to be an ordeal...sometimes when life has had already too many ordeals for the day, you surely don't want another one. That is the way I felt yesterday. Verizon had no explanation. I told them this was the 2nd time this week it had done this to me. They had no answer but one that though it seems simple, was complicated: We will have to call the Tech Support Hot Line. Okay...so we did. They tried this, that, nothing worked. While I am standing there another customer comes in with the same phone I have. He is having the same issue. He tells the clerk, this has been happenng this week, never before. I tell my clerk, hey he has the same phone and it just started happening this week. She gives me "the look"...don't interrupt me, don't try to tell me that this is a big problem, don't try to figure this out, I know what to do. The customer/clerk next to me, he was gone before I was. That clerk replaced his phone. Me??? Ummm after multiple tries by Tech Support, they strip my phone, reboot back to factory settings, I loose all data. Once this process was done, calls out were made, calls in were made...she told me that I was fixed. I said what about the apps I had downloaded, did I have to repay for all those? She shrugged and said, you shouldn't. How can I ensure that? Ummm she didn't know. I wanted to scream: You are Useless! You work in Customer SERVICE and you are useless! I didn't. I said thank you and I walked out. Another representive shouted as I walked out: Thank You for coming in...I wanted to stop and say something, but I kept walking...I didn't nod, I said nothing, I needed to leave. This was the first time I have had service from Verizon Wireless in which if I were to "grade" them, I would give them a less than satisfactory (or shall I say a very unsatisfied rating). They print on all their receipts and other like materials how they want you to be a satisified customer and to let them know via some survey link. If I get one of those emails following up from my visit yesterday, believe me I will be leaving a survery rated in the red no green flying colors! Nope, not this time. You will flunk.

Is my phone working? yes, I can send and receive calls and text messages.

Are the apps working? no.

Can I get on Facebook from my phone? no, error messages that use the word null.

1 comment:

haha. I am sorry you had a bad time. I can relate to the smart phone frustration. I don't think they are so smart, Stuart has one, and when I use it, it makes me want to hurl it across the room. I love real buttons!